


We've Seen It At the Movies

by lost_spook



Category: Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Evil Popcorn, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-04
Updated: 2011-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-15 09:37:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/159482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_spook/pseuds/lost_spook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clyde and Rani are not on a date, even if there is popcorn involved...</p>
            </blockquote>





	We've Seen It At the Movies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Clocketpatch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clocketpatch/gifts).



“Clyde!”

Rani ran up to the gate of Sarah’s Jane’s house, catching him as he was about to head up the drive. “ _Clyde_!”

He turned. “Only going to see if anything’s happening – you know.”

“You’re bored,” she said, and leant on the gatepost. “Sarah Jane’s not there. She’s been away for two days, and there’s nothing doing.”

“Maybe we should check.”

Rani sighed. “We could, but I’ve done that like a million times already today. There is one thing, though…”

*

“You sure about this?” asked Clyde as they moved slowly along the queue for the cinema. “I mean… seems a bit… well… unlikely, don’t you think?”

Rani raised an eyebrow. “After all we’ve seen?”

“Okay, maybe not,” he murmured back. “Can’t see anything suspicious yet, though.”

Rani fished in her purse for a £10 to pay for her ticket. “I heard it might be in the popcorn.”

“Evil popcorn?”

“Obviously, not evil popcorn. Maybe it’s cooked in something weird and alien. D’you remember Sarah Jane telling us about that thing with the chips? It could be like that.”

Clyde gave a muffled snort.

“What was that?”

“Thought you were supposed to have brains. That’s the sort of rubbish people tell you when they’re trying to get you to eat your greens.”

“It was Sarah Jane, and she only told us the other week. If you’re not eating your greens by now, I don’t think horror stories about chips are going to… Wait – was that why you wouldn’t have chips with us the other day?”

Clyde moved ahead of her, past the attendant. “’Course not. I’ll get the popcorn. You know, if we’re not careful this is going to look like a date or something really dumb like that.”

“Clyde, it has to look exactly like a date.”

He stopped, and turned. “It… what?”

Rani sighed. “You don’t think your mates over there would think it a bit strange for you to be going to see the Disney film if it _wasn’t_?”

“What?” said Clyde in alarm at the idea of permanently losing what cool he had left after all this time of hanging out in Bannerman Road. He hastily took the opportunity to put his arm round her, and give the others a smug, superior look as they passed by. (They might be going to see the better film, but were any of them with a girl, let alone one like Rani? They were not.) “Why couldn’t we see _Escape From Hell III_ , anyway?”

“It’s the little kids who keep vanishing,” said Rani. “I told you. And they won’t let them into see stuff like that. I wondered if it might be something about the 3D here.”

“So do we need the evil popcorn or not?”

Rani smiled. “We need the popcorn, anyway. It’s a date, remember?”

*

Arriving back at her gate, Rani turned, in the middle of laughing over a new running joke concerning the implausible robot alien in the film. “Well, we’re home.”

“I can’t believe you _ate_ all the evil popcorn.”

“I offered it to you loads of times.”

“Yeah, but you told me it might be evil first. You sure you’re okay? Not feeling funny or turning blue or something?”

Rani nodded.

Clyde said, “Sorry, though. I didn’t spot anything weird anywhere. Maybe we’ll have to go back tomorrow?”

“We _could_ ,” said Rani, “yeah, but there is something I should tell you first. It’s a sort of confession…”

*

“There’s not anything alien at the Odeon? You made it all up?”

Rani nodded, and pulled a rueful face. “Yes. Sorry. Only, to be fair, I really needed rescuing this afternoon, so -.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Mum was driving me crazy,” said Rani. “I can’t move for flowers and – I had to get out of the house before she sent me completely bonkers – and there you were, so I thought it’d be a good idea.”

“Yeah, but instead of telling me that, you made up a mad story about kids vanishing at the cinema? You sure you’re right in the head?” He thought about it again. “I saw _The Last Duckling_! And I didn’t even get any popcorn!”

“Sorry.”

“Why would you do that?”

“If I’d told you, you’d have thought it was boring. Or made me watch _Escape from Hell_ instead, so -.” She shrugged. “Seriously, I’d have been loopy by now if we hadn’t gone.”

“Wait,” said Clyde, making a discovery. He became smug. “You know what this means? This means it was actually a date. You asked me out!”

“I so did not!”

He smiled at her and grabbed her hand, dragging her up the path. “Oh, yeah? Then when I walk you to the door here and tell your Mum what we did, she won’t think that -.”

“Clyde! Are you insane?”

Clyde stopped, reflecting on Rani’s parents again, and realised she had a good point. “Yeah, all right. I’ll let you off the hook. But only on one condition.”

“What?”

“We go back again, and this time I get to choose the film, and you don’t tell me there’s alien gunge in the popcorn.”

Rani hugged him. “Okay, then. And, thanks, Clyde. It was nice.”

 _Nice_ wasn’t the word he’d have chosen, but then she gave a lopsided smile, and kissed him lightly on the cheek before letting him go, and suddenly he was more than happy with _nice_. _Nice_ was fine by him. In fact, _nice_ was great.

“I’d better get back,” she said, but she smiled again, before she disappeared inside the house.

Obviously, Rani was a friend; that was all, Clyde thought, as he walked away, whistling to himself. A really good friend, and anyway you couldn’t date the head teacher’s daughter because that was like some sort of crazy suicide mission, but it wasn’t bad for the start of, well, whatever it was or wasn’t. Of course, if it came to it, he wasn’t bad at crazy, suicide missions, either.


End file.
